Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Loaded Veggie Gluten Free Pizza

I am not a gambler. I would much rather have a pair of shoes in my hand, then to take the chance to double my money, and therefore double my shoes, or potentially lose it all.

I understand the concept: take the risk, and you have the potential to double your shoes! But, I would rather be guaranteed shoes than take the chance to get free shoes. I find that each time I gamble, I lose it all. No. I will not accept that. I need to have a guarantee of 100% that I will get my shoes all the time. I am definitely quite boring in that respect. At the same time, I totally admire people that can take the risk and have the risk pay off. I find that extremely cool. Extremely amazing. And it makes my very jealous.

I am much better at working hard and deliberately using that hard word to take care of myself, than I am at potentially losing a lot, or winning a lot. I don't like the potential. I don't like the risk. I like the honest perseverance. And because of this, I'm probably a lot poorer than I could be. Ha ha.

This pizza was a big gamble for me. The recipe for the dough is a bit out there. I'm not too sure how it's going to pay off. And when you say you are making pizza and the dough is crappy, most people eating it are slightly unhappy with their situation.

I have to say, it is one of the most beautiful pizza doughs I have made. I am quite proud of the appearance. The texture of the dough turned out to be similar to my Polenta pizza I made in February, and not really like a normal kind of dough. But, it probably could be; I should have changed the ratio of cornmeal to flour. Next time. The important thing here is that I did take a risk on a recipe that is a dough, but didn't call for yeast, water, and used cornmeal and yogurt and cottage cheese. I mean really at the end of the day, just load things up with cheese, veggies and put it on some type of crust and I will be happy.

Lets see how things went.

Well that looks pretty!

It's art, really.

Tasty toppings

Just the perfect amount of browning

It really didn't turn out that badly! But, as I mentioned above, I think I would make some small tweaks next time. I would add only half the cornmeal, and would make two smaller thin crust pizzas rather than my one monster. I found the dough to be a bit thicker than I like. Mind you I love thin crust pizzas, so please adjust the pizza thickness to your preference.

3. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Once combined knead the dough 4-5 times and form into a ball. Drizzle the olive oil over the ball and roll the ball around to coat the ball evenly. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

For the pizza:

1. Put a piece of parchment paper on top of a pizza pan. Press the dough on to the pizza pan and roll out with a rolling pin. Roll to 1/4 inch thick.

2. Top the pizza with sauce, garlic, and cilantro. Spread the mixture to evenly cover the pizza.

3. Top the pizza with the shredded cheese and vegetables. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

4. Bake at 450 F for 10-15 minutes, or until the middle of the pizza appears to be cooked and the edges have browned. Broil for 1-2 minutes to crisp the toppings.

5. Allow the pizza to rest for 1-2 minutes before slicing and serving.